Name

Year

Credit

credited As

Marvel Studios
Peggy Carter, the plucky heroine of Marvel's short film Agent Carter, is getting her own series. Talk of a possible Agent Carter TV show has been rumbling around ever since the character's live-action debut in Captain America: The First Avenger and her subsequent solo adventure, but things were made official today with ABC picking up the property for a series order. The past couple of days have been huge for superheroes on television - this week alone saw pickups for Gotham, The Flash, and Agent Carter by different networks - so to help you decide which comic book crusader to catch on the small screen next year, we've outlined all of the upcoming superhero television series currently hurtling their way to your television sets.
Agent CarterPremiere Date: There's no official word, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, the series will likely be used as a "bridge" during the second season hiatus of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. That would put the premiere date around Spring/Summer 2015.What It's About: Based on the Agent Carter one shot, the series will focus on Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) as she begins her legendary career as a spy and works to form the intelligence agency, S.H.I.E.L.D.Will it Be Good? The original one shot was an incredibly fun romp, and the upcoming series already has an impressive cast forming (Atwell is confirmed to star, and Dominic Cooper will possibly reprise his role as Howard Stark). Agent Carter will also likely be able to side step the pitfalls of its sister program, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., since it doesn't have to align as slavishly to the continuity of Marvel's cinematic output. Plus, the show will be run by Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas, who have proven themselves capable of delivering fun, episodic television from their work on the wonderful, yet sadly short-lived Reaper. We do have some doubts, given ABC's handling of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but Agent Carter looks to be in good shape.
The FlashPremiere Date: Fall 2014What It's About: A spin-off of the CW's wildly sucessful Arrow, The Flash will focus on Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), a costumed crimefighter who gains super-speed after being caught in a chemical explosion at S.T.A.R. labs.Will It Be Good? The CW has proven themselves to be quite adept at creating compelling superhero TV. After some early missteps, Arrow has blossomed into a fun, rollicking hour of television with the right mix of action and melodrama. Given that it's a spin-off, the series already has an established universe to take plots, the scarlet speedster should be in capable hands.
GothamPremiere Date: Fall 2014What It's About: Gotham will serve as an origin story for the entire Batman universe. The series will center on a young Det. Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) during his first couple of years on the Gotham police force, while also exploring the humble beginnings of several classic Batman characters, including Penguin, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, the Riddler and of course, a young Bruce Wayne.Will It Be Good? Creating a series centered on Batman's city sans Batman is decidedly risky, but there's a lot to like in what we've seen of the series so far. Gotham's first trailer is decidedly moody and the actual depiction of Gotham City - a dark and sprawling metropolis with a ton of secrets hidden in every alleyway - looks just about right, but all the child versions of Batman's iconic rogues gallery does give us pause. It might also suffer from the same problems that have plagued Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D's rocky first season, namely being set in a comic book universe without all the cool comic book characters. If the series can weave a compelling and original narrative with the Batman mythos, then we won't miss the caped crusader all that much.
The Netflix Series: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The DefendersPremiere Dates: Sometime in 2015, beginning with Daredevil.What It's About: Netflix is strengthening its original programming output with four original series based on Marvel comics properties. They'll focus on Daredevil, a blind crimefighter with heightened senses; Jessica Jones, a super-powered private investigator; Luke Cage, a super-powered and near-invulnerable hero for hire and Iron Fist, a martial artist endowed with mystical abilities. Finally, all four heroes will come together in The Defenders, an epic mini-series event.Will It Be Good? Much of Netflix's original programming thus far has been pretty great, so it would seem that the streaming service is dedicated to delivering quality material. Also, writer Drew Goddard will serve as showrunner on Daredevil. Goddard has quite an impressive resume, with writing credits on Cloverfield, Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alias, Angel, and World War Z, not to mention his work directing Cabin in the Woods. Things are looking good for Marvel and Netflix.
Follow @Hollywood_com
Follow @CurrentlyJordan

Universal Pictures via Everett Collection
There are some actors that we love to hear sing. In fact, we've compiled a list of a few performers' voices that we can't get enough of. Then there are others that really just shouldn't be given the opportunity to sing on screen. Some of them are truly terrible and some others are just misguided, but here's our look at the worst singing performances in movies.
Pierce Brosnan, Mamma Mia!
There's a reason that they used to dub actors' singing voices in musicals (Hello, Marnie Nixon!), and Brosnan is the poster child for revisiting the practice. He looks terrific in the Mediterranean locales and linen suits of Mamma Mia!, but his singing is bad enough that it almost deserves its own separate category.
Russell Crowe, Les Miserables
It's hard to know exactly what the producers were thinking when they cast Crowe in Les Miz, beyond just that he sort of looks right for the role of Inspector Javert. He certainly doesn’t sound right. Most of the rest of the cast can legitimately sing, so tossing the Gladiator star into the mix was all the more jarring.
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
There are actually worse vocal performances in Tim Burton's film about the "Demon Barber of Fleet Street"… Alan Rickman and Helena Bonham Carter to name two. The issue with Depp's singing is that he can't seem to figure out what to do with his accent. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not, and sometimes it morphs into a little bit of Keith Richards/Jack Sparrow.
Alec Baldwin, Rock of Ages, or...
...Tom Cruise, Rock of Ages
We tried to pick which was worse… Baldwin singing "I Can't Fight This Feeling" with Russell Brand or Cruise singing "I Want to Know What Love Is" with Malin Akerman. There was no consensus since they're both about as bad as anything you'll ever see in a movie musical. Feel free to watch them and see if you can decide... if you can make it all the way through either one.
Drew Barrymore, Music and Lyrics
We love Barrymore, really we do. She's adorable and sweet and we like having her around. It's just that her voice is a little too thin for her to be singing on camera. We thought so in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You and we thought the same thing in her rom-com with Hugh Grant.
Michael Caine, The Muppet Christmas Carol
Okay, so it's a Muppets movie, we get it. Kermit and Miss Piggy aren't the best singers either. But both Tina Fey and Amy Adams have proven that just because you're surrounded by felt doesn't mean that you have to sing poorly. In the grand tradition of British stage actors, Caine just kind of talks his way through his singing parts. Not all traditions are good.
Cameron Diaz, My Best Friend's Wedding
Yes, the script called for her to be intentionally bad… and, by that standard, this is a dynamite performance. You know that you're in a rom-com when the crowd at a karaoke place starts going nuts for someone butchering a Dusty Springfield song.
Edward Norton, Everyone Says I Love You
This is kind of a shame, because it's clear that Norton really enjoys singing. He tosses himself into the musical performance with gusto, treating it like it's the prison cell scene from Primal Fear… which is what makes him such a good actor. It just doesn't make him a good singer. Based on Keeping the Faith and his Motorola commercial, however, it does seem like he'd be more fun at a karaoke bar than Diaz.
Adam Sandler, The Wedding Singer
Here's the mistake that a lot of people make… just because Sandler sings a lot doesn't mean that he's a good singer. We admire the fact that he likes to do it and we laughed at "The Turkey Song" and "The Hanukkah Song" on Saturday Night Live, same as everyone else… but there are limits to how much of Sandler's man-child voice that we can take. He is, however, welcome to continue serenading Barrymore once every 10 years as he did recently on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Sometimes even bad singing is sweet.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
Follow @LifeAsSitcom
//

Summit via Everett Collection
You can imagine that Renny Harlin, director and one quadrant of the writing team for The Legend of Hercules, began his pitch as such: We'll start with a war, because lots of these things start with wars. It feels like this was the principal maxim behind a good deal of the creative choices in this latest update of the Ancient Greek myth. There are always horse riding scenes. There are generally arena battles. There are CGI lions, when you can afford 'em. Oh, and you've got to have a romantic couple canoodling at the base of a waterfall. Weaving them all together cohesively would be a waste of time — just let the common threads take form in a remarkably shouldered Kellan Lutz and action sequences that transubstantiate abjectly to and fro slow-motion.
But pervading through Lutz's shirtless smirks and accent continuity that calls envy from Johnny Depp's Alice in Wonderland performance is the obtrusive lack of thought that went into this picture. A proverbial grab bag of "the basics" of the classic epic genre, The Legend of Hercules boasts familiarity over originality. So much so that the filmmakers didn't stop at Hercules mythology... they barely started with it, in fact. There's more Jesus Christ in the character than there is the Ancient Greek demigod, with no lack of Gladiator to keep things moreover relevant. But even more outrageous than the void of imagination in the construct of Hercules' world is its script — a piece so comically dim, thin, and idiotic that you will laugh. So we can't exactly say this is a totally joyless time at the movies.
Summit via Everett Collection
Surrounding Hercules, a character whose arc takes him from being a nice enough strong dude to a nice enough strong dude who kills people and finally owns up to his fate — "Okay, fine, yes, I guess I'm a god" — are a legion of characters whose makeup and motivations are instituted in their opening scenes and never change thereafter. His de facto stepdad, the teeth-baring King Amphitryon (Scott Adkins), despises the boy for being a living tribute to his supernatural cuckolding; his half-brother Iphicles (Liam Garrigan) is the archetypical scheming, neutered, jealous brother figure right down to the facial scar. The dialogue this family of mongoloids tosses around is stunningly brainless, ditto their character beats. Hercules can't understand how a mystical stranger knows his identity, even though he just moments ago exited a packed coliseum chanting his name. Iphicles defies villainy and menace when he threatens his betrothed Hebe (Gaia Weiss), long in love with Hercules, with the terrible fate of "accepting [him] and loving [their] children equally!" And the dad... jeez, that guy must really be proud of his teeth.
With no artistic feat successfully accomplished (or even braved, really) by this movie, we can at the very least call it inoffensive. There is nothing in The Legend of Hercules with which to take issue beyond its dismal intellect, and in a genre especially prone to regressive activity, this is a noteworthy triumph. But you might not have enough energy by the end to award The Legend of Hercules with this superlative. Either because you'll have laughed yourself into a coma at the film's idiocy, or because you'll have lost all strength trying to fend it off.
1/5
Follow @Michael Arbeiter
//
| Follow @Hollywood_com
//

NBC
Whether you loved it, hated it, or just enjoyed making fun of it, there's no denying that last week's Sound of Music, Live! television special on NBC drew a lot of attention and some massive ratings. And all of those people watching and live-tweeting have inspired the network to make it an annual holiday tradition. That's right: there will now be a live musical on television every year, for better or for worse. NBC already has a few new productions they're currently circling, and although it's still too early to reveal any clues about what audiences can expect next year, they have promised that they're looking for something that's family-friendly and has enough familiar songs to appease everyone.
With those strict criteria in mind, we've come up with five options for musicals we'd love to see NBC turn into a live television special, and five they should avoid at all costs.
DO'S:
Funny Girl Since it's likely that NBC will turn to some classic movie musicals in order to find inspiration for their next production, we suggest they step away from the obvious choice of My Fair Lady and instead go with Funny Girl, the musical that made Barbra Striesand a household name. There's plenty of familiar songs to catch people's attention and the story will appeal to older audiences who are familiar with the movie, or younger audiences who grew up watching it. If they're interested in enticing a younger audience, all they would have to do is cast Lea Michele, whose Glee character Rachel Berry is currently playing the part, and who is a shoo-in for the lead if the production ever returns to Broadway. Besides, if there's anyone in the world who is set to inherit Streisand's legacy, it's Michele, and this would be the perfect place to establish herself as a mini-Barbra.
Thoroughly Modern MillieAlthough the movie might be less familiar to most audiences than Funny Girl, the musical, which was originally produced in 2002, has become a staple of high school theater departments across the country. This connection would allow the network to draw a younger audience, who are familiar with the production, but the 1920s setting and jazz-age inspired music won't turn off an older audience either. And even though the songs might not be as well-known as the score of The Sound of Music, it's catchy and up-beat enough to stick in your head for weeks afterward. For star power, NBC could go with Sutton Foster, who originated and won a Tony Award for the role when it was on Broadway, as her stint on the beloved but canceled Bunheads would draw a decent sized audience who are eager to see more from Foster.
Wicked Sure, they could choose The Wizard of Oz, which has become part of a holiday tradition for many people already, but let's face it: without Judy Garland, the show's kind of boring. Instead, the network should go with Wicked, which has become somewhat of a modern classic. It's entertaining enough for children, complex enough for adults, and has become a pop culture phenomenon and the biggest hit musical Broadway has seen in quite some time, all of which would translate to massive ratings for NBC. Sure, the set would be a bit complicated, but nothing draws in viewers like the risk of a fly rig malfunctioning live on air. Plus, if the network managed to get Idina Menzel or Kristin Chenoweth to reprise their roles, there's no way anyone would watch anything else that night.
Little Shop of HorrorsThis choice might be a little less family-friendly than some of our other suggestions, but despite the threat of a man-eating plant, Little Shop of Horrors has cross-generational appeal, and its score has the familiarity that NBC is looking for in a musical. The danger and sentient plants will appeal to children, and the story is well known and well-loved by older viewers, so it really wouldn't be as risky for NBC as they might think. Plus, all they would have to do is cast Neil Patrick Harris as Seymour, and the ratings would come flooding in.
Guys and DollsAnother classic that would work for NBC would be Guys and Dolls. Like Millie, it's a staple of theaters across the country, and the score contains songs that have become famous in their own right. This one might be harder to entice a younger audience to watch, as it lacks some of the flashier elements that would keep children entertained, but that could easily be solved by casting Hugh Jackman. Ideally, Jackman would play Sky Masterson, which would allow him to work his charm on both Sarah Brown and the audience, but he could also pull off a fantastic Nathan Detroit — especially if he had a talented, comedic actress to play off of. Perhaps Lauren Graham could reprise her role as Miss Adelaide?
DON'TS:
Spring AwakeningYou might think we're crazy for including a rock musical that includes profanity, nudity, suicide, and back-alley abortions, but if NBC decided to appeal to a younger audience, there's a chance they could follow in the footsteps of 90210 and decide to mount a production of Spring Awakening. After all, it was Lea Michele's breakthrough theater role, and if they managed to bring back the original cast — which included Frozen's Jonathan Groff, Skylar Astin from Pitch Perfect, and The Newsroom star John Gallgher Jr. — then high ratings would be guaranteed. But there's no way that a television network would manage to put on this show effectively, since they would have to change about 95 percent of it.
Mary PoppinsWith Saving Mr. Banks hitting theaters soon, NBC might decide to capitalize off of the renewed interested in Mary Poppins and put on the musical next year. While it's a great choice for them, being a much loved film with familiar songs, characters and stories, we don't think it's such a good idea. Firstly, Disney would never grant them the rights, as that would mean handing over massive ratings to a rival network. But, more importantly, if there's one thing we all learned from The Sound of Music it's this: don't ever attempt to recreate a role made famous by Julie Andrews.
AnnieYes, it's a classic, and yes, everyone knows at least two songs from the show and are able to belt them out at the drop of a hat. But do you really want to spend a whole three hours watching precocious children sing and dance on screen while your obnoxious little cousins do the same in your living room, and everyone around you acts like it's the cutest thing they've ever seen even though it's clearly terrible? No, we didn't think so.
The Phantom of the OperaDespite currently being the longest-running show on Broadway, which proves its universal appeal, and the fact that it would look almost as amazing onscreen as it does in the theater, Phantom is a terrible idea for a television special. Why? Because in addition to encouraging plenty of people to romanticize a relationship that consists entirely of stalking and kidnapping, after about two songs, it feels as if you're just listening to a three-hour funeral march. Plus, there are very few people who are both famous enough to draw in an audience and talented enough to sing that score without it being a complete train wreck.
CatsThis year, give your family the gift that keeps on giving: the trauma that results from watching a bunch of adults wearing skintight leotards and face paint crawl around in some moodily-lit garbage cans to a score that it both incredibly boring and obnoxiously catchy. We'll sit this one out, thanks.
Follow @hollywood_com
//
Follow @julesemm
//

Lions Gate via Everett Collection
When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
Follow @Michael Arbeiter
//
| Follow @Hollywood_com
//

WENN.comIt now seems difficult to imagine anyone other than Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson in the lead roles of The Hunger Games. But due to the phenomenal success of the novels, the majority of the cast faced super-tough competition to land a part in the film. Here's a look at five characters who in an alternate universe would have been played by somebody completely different.Katniss EverdeenAround 50 actors reportedly auditioned for the series' hero, the most high-profile of which were Abigail Breslin, Chloe Grace Moretz, Hailee Steinfeld and Emily Browning. The last of these shares something in common with J-Law: both actresses had previously missed out on the role of Bella in Twilight.Peeta MellarkAmerican Horror Story's Evan Peters, X-Men: First Class' Lucas Till and Magic Mike's Alex Pettyfer were all in contention for the male lead, as were Liam Hemsworth and Alexander Ludwig, both of whom of course went onto play Gale and Cato respectively.Gale HawthorneHad Miley Cyrus' ex been cast as Peeta instead, then Arrow star Robbie Amell, Disney Channel graduate David Henrie and former Hannah Montana regular Drew Roy would all have been poised to take his place.Haymitch AbernathyAccording to various sources, John C. Reilly was in the frame to play the middle-aged victor of the 50th Hunger Games until Woody Harrelson was selected ahead of his fellow Oscar nominee at the last minute.Finnick OdairDespite publicly professing his love for the series, Glee actor Grant Gustin missed out on the role of District 4 tribute Finnick Odair, who will first be seen onscreen in Catching Fire, to Pirates Of The Caribbean star Sam Claflin.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//

John Paul Filo/CBS
We stay up to watch shows like The Tonight Show and Late Night With David Letterman and Conan to see interviews with celebrities and funny sketches. Things don't always go as planned even for the people who meticulously plan and run these shows, often to the chagrin of the hosts and sometimes the guests themselves. The audiences tend to love it. though.
1. Drew Barrymore Striptease on David Letterman (1995)
Who can forget Dave squirming when Barrymore flashed him? I'm sure that the censors watching the show nearly had a heart attack when deciding whether to air this or not.
2. Madonna on Letterman (2008)
Admit it, you didn't look at cigars the same way after her appearance with Letterman. Say what you will, but she is the queen of being able to get people to talk about her.
3. Hugh Grant on Jay Leno (1995)
Usually when people appear on these shows, they expect easy questions. Grant was likely not expecting "What the hell were you thinking?" alluding to his being caught with a prostitute in his car while he was dating Elizabeth Freaking Hurley at the same time.
4. Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman (2009)
Who knew what the hell was going on when the bearded Phoenix conducted one of the most out there interviews ever. It turned out that it was an Andy Kaufman-esque type thing for Phoenix, who was getting ready for a movie role. He came out looking decidedly more normal in another appearance to explain, but I'm sure Letterman's show booker was asking beforehand, "You SURE you're not going to pull something like this again?"
5. Power Goes Out on Craig Ferguson (2009)
Who needs power to run a show? Ferguson just kicked back in the surrounding darkness and cracked jokes with a robotic co-host. Every show should be so laid-back.
6. Letterman Audience-Free Shows During Sandy (2012)
In the same vein as Ferguson, this time Letterman didn't even have an audience during the superstorm. He stood there in an empty studio, save for his sidekick, Paul Shaffer, and the accompying band and did his monologue and regular show. Who says the audience adds anything?
7. Matt Damon Ties Up Jimmy Kimmel (2013)
Late-night TV or the WWE? Damon, in a mock feud with Kimmel, finally snapped, tied up Kimmel and hosted the show himself. Vince McMahon would be proud of that storyline.
8. Jimmy Kimmel Rips Leno Post-Conan O'Brien Firing (2010)
Kimmel was NOT happy when Conan was removed as host of The Tonight Show and he subequently mocked Leno, including doing a show dressed up as him and continued on the offensive until the red-headed comedian locked into his own show on TBS. I was happy to see this, since even the Leno/Letterman rivalry had gotten stale.
9. Sinead O'Connor Tears Pope John Paul II's Picture on SNL (1992)
The Irish singer sure tore herself out of the spotlight after that stunt to protest the Catholic church's view on abortion/contraception: she was also unhappy to be on the same show that the misogynistic Andrew Dice Clay was hosting. It was quite a fall: she had been on top of the world with her hit single, "Nothing Compares 2 U" and after that she faded away until making guest appearances on albums with groups like Massive Attack in the 2000s.
10. Lindsay Lohan on Letterman (2013)
Like Grant, Lohan was surprised by pointed questions about her personal life, which continues to be a train wreck of drugs, alcohol and smoking enough cigarettes to age her 20 years. Letterman can be a good interviewer: he wouldn't last as long as he has without that skill, but he can get testy with people that annoy him. Guess Lohan fit into that category.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
More: The Craziest Music Feuds5 Funcomfortable MoviesMovies Set in The Fall
From Our Partners:40 Most Revealing See-Through Red Carpet Looks (Vh1)15 Stars Share Secrets of their Sex Lives (Celebuzz)

Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins is celebrating after officials at a church in her hometown were granted almost $300,000 (£200,000) to aid the building's much-needed restoration. The opera star drew attention to St. David's Church in the small town of Neath earlier this year (13) when she hosted a fundraiser and auctioned off a dress she wore on U.S. reality show Dancing with the Stars to help boost donations for the cause.
This week (begs12Aug13), church leaders were awarded thousands from bosses at the U.K.'s National Lottery organisation to enable them to restore the venue's gothic tower to its former glory, and Jenkins shared the good news with fans on Wednesday (14Aug13) by posting a Twitter.com link to a local article about the charity grant.
In the accompanying note, she simply wrote, "Great news".
St. David's Church representatives had originally aimed to raise $750,000 (£500,000) to cover the costs of the revamp.

The news that Star Wars: The Clone Wars had been cancelled came to me as a slowly-dawning shock. Almost like the Five Stages of Grief in reverse. I started with acceptance, the realization that this show couldn't last forever. After all, it had originally been planned for only 100 episodes at its outset, and we crossed that mark this January. Lucasfilm's announcement also promised that another animated series is in the works, one that would explore a wholly untouched part of the Star Wars timeline. That's exciting. But as much as it may be un-Jedi-like of me, as the day progressed and the news truly started to sink in, I found it harder and harder to let go.
The Clone Wars has been an amazingly accomplished series throughout its run. If its quality ever varied, it's because it realized it had to be all things to all Star Wars fans and deliver different kinds of episodes for different demographics: young kids encountering that Galaxy Far, Far Away for the first time, teenagers and young adults who first experienced Star Wars with the prequels, and middle-aged fans for whom the original trilogy is all the Star Wars they ever care to know. That's a tall order. And with an incredible batting average, it succeeded in pleasing each of those groups at one time or another.
RELATED: Lt. Commander Data’s Tricorder Analysis of the Vatican’s White Smoke…and the New Pope
The lazy, kneejerk response to The Clone Wars is that it was what the prequels should have been: kinetic, action-driven, easy on the politics and heavy on the mythmaking. You will get no such prequel-bashing from this post. The funny thing is, The Clone Wars could be daringly political and devote whole episodes to moral quandaries and character's relationships as easily as it could space battles and lightsaber duels. It can be argued, very easily in fact, that The Clone Wars took the best of the prequels and the best of the original trilogy and made a series radically original and unlike any previous TV animation project. What emerged was a show as vast as the Star Wars galaxy itself. And lucky for us, there are still stories to tell, due to still unaired episodes that are due a DVD release or online streaming or who knows what. The final separation pains are still to be felt later on. But for now, let's take a deep breath and count the ways The Clone Wars was the very best that Star Wars had to offer.
RELATED: Get Thee to the Geek: Why ‘DS9’ Is the Best, Most Influential, ‘Trek’
1. The Clone Wars Gave Us Vivid Characters With Bold Personalities and Complex Motivations
For the incredible roster of characters The Clone Wars gave us, you have to give a great tip of the hat to Lucasfilm Animation's talented stable of voice actors. (We'll get to them in a minute.) But, first and foremost, you've gotta acknowledge not only the depth but the economy of the writing. There were hundreds of characters with speaking parts throughout the 109 episodes of the show. And each episode ran for only 22 minutes. To convey a sense of any character's personality, the writers had to communicate something unique about each of them...and very quickly. Members of the Jedi Council, who served as freaky-looking window dressing in the movies, had to be fleshed out, and, in the case of Plo Koon or Even Piell or Adi Gallia, be capable of anchoring episodes themselves.
An even greater challenge lay in making each of the Republic's clone troopers distinct. I mean, they're clones. They all look the same. They all have the same voice (the incomparable Dee Bradley Baker). How do you set them apart? The writers made it seemed like they'd solved that problem effortlessly, building whole episodes, or even multi-episode story arcs around squads of clone troopers, like the Battle for Umbara Arc in Season 4. Take away the white armor, the blasters, the lightsabers, and any other funky tech, then splice those episodes together, and that arc could have served as a solid Vietnam War movie.
Then there's the way the show introduced new characters. Some of these developed whole cults of personality themselves, like Duros bounty hunter Cad Bane. Others would only appear in one episode, or even one scene, but were still capable of making an impression. Writer Brent Friedman especially proved himself a master at efficiently setting up new characters and delineating their personalities, as in the clip below, my favorite scene from my favorite episode of the series: Season 4's "The Box." Look at the way Friedman introduces 12 characters from the show in under 90 seconds. And once those 90 seconds are up, you know exactly what you need to know about each of those characters.
Even beyond the economy of that set-up, Friedman writes something A New Hope achieved brilliantly: a line of throwaway dialogue that suggests an epic history we're not entirely privy to. In this case, it's when Count Dooku says to the final bounty hunter, a Selkath of the aquatic race first scene in the videogame Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, that his people were once a peaceful race and "How far they have fallen." Whoa. So what happened to them, exactly? Why did they change? We don't know but our minds are racing with possibilities. This is writing that inspires the imagination, and it's in micro what Clone Warsdid all the time.
RELATED: ‘Clone Wars’ Ending Production, ‘Winding Down,’ New ‘Star Wars’ Animated Series Planned
2. The Clone Wars Went Further than the Expanded Universe
I love the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I've probably read a good 70+ Star Wars novels easy, not to mention countless comics and graphic novels. So I can understand why fans were upset when The Clone Wars rewrote previously established canon, like killing off Even Piell (who had previously been depicted as surviving Order 66), or, most notably, what the show did with bony Sith assassin, and all-around hottie, Asajj Ventress. In the Clone Wars comics released before Revenge of the Sith hit theaters, Ventress was portrayed as a repeat sufferer of abandonment, whose loneliness drove her toward the Dark Side -- and the manipulation of Count Dooku. On the show, some of that was left in place, but she was also revealed to be a Nightsister, and rather just exiting galactic history stage-right near the end of the war, as in the comics, on the show she became a bounty hunter and, eventually, a quasi-ally to both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano. George Lucas, who had a hand in most, if not all, of the TV show's plot points, personally steered Ventress' arc in that direction. And you've got to admit it's more interesting than what had already been established in the EU. The same goes for Barriss Offee, who in the Season 5 (er, series) finale revealed herself to be a traitor to the Jedi Order and the person framing Ahsoka for murder and terrorism. In the comics, she was just another anonymous casualty of Order 66. On The Clone Wars, however, she was given a far more compelling exit.
3. The Clone Wars Featured Some of the Saga's Greatest Battles
And, yes, the show had plenty of action. In fact, it offered up space battles and lightsaber duels of true cinematic sweep, the equal of anything seen in the movies. And it set those battles in landscapes and environs unlike anything seen in the movies. Space battles? Try the Sky Battle of Quell on for size, instead.
The Clone Wars even cannibalized unused concept art for the original trilogy that legendary artist Ralph McQuarrie had painted. His original blue-white vision for Hoth became the moon Orto Plutonia in Season 1. And his exotic cityscapes were just as interesting, so his design for Coruscant's Monument Plaza made it onto the show, as well.
NEXT: The Clone Wars was brimming with talent, behind the scenes and in the recording booth.
4. The Clone Wars Was Really Smart
This show was capable of delivering a two-part episode about the passage of legislation that would enact banking reforms (in Season 3), as a kind of commentary on the Wall Street shenanigans that led to our financial collapse in this galaxy in 2008. I know, I know, you'll balk and say that sounds as dry as "the taxation of trade routes," but The Clone Wars made that incredibly interesting. It became a study of the political process, about how Palpatine coerced his minions to do what he needed to do, that was worthy of Lincoln or Advise and Consent. And it showed the intersection of economics and warfare. To ensure the passage of that legislation, General Grievous sends suicide-bomber droids to Coruscant to destroy the the government district's main power center and plunge the Republic Senate in darkness. His motivational speech to those droids as he sent them on their mission was almost Dickensian: "I won't lie to you...this is a dangerous mission. Some of you may not return....Actually, none of you will return." The resulting blackout was dripping with Langian paranoia and the kind of inky, palpable fear of a people ready to turn to fascism to solve their problems. Brilliant stuff.
RELATED: Ashley Eckstein on Why Ahsoka’s ‘Clone Wars’ Future Now Seems ‘A Lot Brighter’
5. The Clone Wars Had an Incredible Roster of Voice Talent
The show's regular cast of Matt Lanter as Anakin, Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka, Tom Kane as the Narrator, Dee Bradley Baker as the clones, the late Ian Abercrombie as Palpatine, and James Arnold Taylor as an inspired (and inspiring) Obi-Wan, was peerless. But supervising director Dave Filoni also managed to score high-profile guest talent: actors like George Takei, Michael York, Tim Curry (as Abercrombie's replacement for Palpatine), Katee Sackhoff, Seth Green, Simon Pegg, and even, in one memorable cameo, Liam Neeson himself as Qui-Gon Jinn. As great as they were, it was the regulars, though, who really made the show shine week-in and week-out. Check out the final time we heard Abercrombie as Darth Sidious, at the end of this knock-out fight when the Sith Lord sneers at a supplicating Darth Maul and says, "I'm not going to kill you...I have other plans for you-u-u-u...(trails off into maniacal laugh). The best.
6. The Clone Wars Gave Us the Most Fully Realized Star Wars Underworld Yet
Sure, we got glimpses of scum and villainy in the Mos Eisley Cantina, Jabba's Palace, and that weird Coruscant nightclub Anakin and Obi-Wan visit in Attack of the Clones. But Clone Wars went deeper. In fact, it even devoted whole episodes to gangsters, pirates, and bounty hunters. For years, it's been rumored that a live-action TV series, tentatively titled Star Wars: Underworld, would explore the demimonde of that Galaxy Far, Far Away. But you don't need to wait for a show that may never happen. It already has happened. This interaction between Nika Futterman's Asajj Ventress and Simon Pegg's Dengar is perfectly indicative of the languid sleaze and scuzzy sexiness the show could trade in effortlessly.
7. The Clone Wars Had an Unbeatable Rogues Gallery
We've already talked about how great Ventress was on the show. But she's just the tip of the villainous iceberg. Jon Favreau, director of Iron Man and Elf, voiced the sinister, snarling Mandalorian Death Watch terrorist Pre Vizsla, a character who could have been a throwaway baddie but ended up having a kind of karmic--even tragic--story arc. Or the Nightsister coven leader, Mother Talzin. Or Revenge of the Sith's General Grievous, whose unique mix of malice and campiness was perfected by voice artist (and Oscar-nominated sound editor of There Will Be Blood) Matthew Wood. Or Savage Opress, who, forget Vizsla, really had a tragic arc, and was voiced by Highlander's Clancy Brown! Or Tarkin, the King's English-accented villain inhabited by Peter Cushing in A New Hope, who was the only man capable of holding Vader's leash, and was given a new, equally snide personality by Stephen Stanton. Or Cad Bane, who was the Star Wars Galaxy's answer to Lee Van Cleef's Angel Eyes in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: implacable, unstoppable, someone we'd call a force of nature if he weren't just so damn civilized. He was the kind of bounty hunter willing to kill someone if they had a wider-brimmed hat than him, who was never to be found without a toothpick in his mouth, who just seemed to conjure Morricone-esque music out of thin air. In this scene, the floor of his apartment was originally supposed to have the chalk outline of a Gungan. Even more reason to like him!
NEXT: The Clone Wars drew upon a diverse range of influences from Star Wars itself to Alfred Hitchcock to, I would argue, John Waters. (Yep, we're talking "Hunt for Ziro.")
8. The Clone Wars' Movie Inspirations Were Savvy
Though the call-outs were subtle, several episodes were designed as homages to movies cherished by Dave Filoni &amp; Co. A Season 2 episode recast Seven Samurai with Star Wars bounty hunters, in tribute to the centennial of Akira Kurosawa's birth. One of the characters, the broad-hatted Embo was part of a race named the Kyuzo, in honor of Seven Samurai's most taciturn badass. There were also episodes rendered in the style of Godzilla movies, zombie flicks, Spaghetti Westerns (note that sarape Boba Fett wears in Season 2!), even a blow-by-blow redo of the end of Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious with Anakin as Cary Grant, Padmé as Ingrid Bergman, and Senator Clovis as Claude Rains.
RELATED: ‘Clone Wars’ Recap: The Fate of Ahsoka
9. The Clone Wars Gave Us Mini Movies.
Serialized storytelling is the holy grail of TV production today, but Clone Wars found a middle ground between a serialized rollout of its stories and an episodic approach. Though a character like Anakin's Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, obviously has an arc throughout the course of the whole series, the show mostly preferred three-to-four episode arcs. Splice those together, like Season 3's Nightsisters arc, or the Mortis trilogy, or Season 4's awesome Undercover Obi-Wan arc, and you'd have some pretty tasty cinematic experiences. Here's hoping that the final episodes that have yet to be released will be cut together to fully unleash their latent theatrical heft.
RELATED: Get Thee to the Geek: How Escapism Made a Comeback
10. The Clone Wars Explored the Niches of that Galaxy Far, Far Away
One thing you could do in a TV show that you couldn't do in a movie, not even in the spin-off Star Wars movies Disney has planned, is give really obscure supporting characters the spotlight. Take one of the oddest, but possibly most original, episodes of the series: "Hunt for Ziro." Ziro the Hutt, a tattooed, purple Hutt who escaped from prison with the assistance of Cad Bane, but forgot to pay Bane for his services, was modeled on Truman Capote, voice and all. Despite Ziro's previously ambiguous sexuality, he was revealed to have a girlfriend in "Hunt for Ziro," the glam lead singer of the Max Rebo Band, as seen in Jabba's Palace in Return of the Jedi, Sy Snootles. Sy put on a Vegas floor show in "Hunt for Ziro," then rushed to her beloved Ziro's side, after he was locked in prison again. They exchanged some self-consciously overheated Tennessee Williams dialogue like Ziro's "Unfortunately the cage that entraps me now also entraps my chance of loving you again." So Sy helped him escape...and then she gunned him down, proving herself to be the Star Wars saga's ultimate femme fatale. Who knew?
11. The Clone Wars Had a John Waters-esque Affinity for the Absurd
And the grotesque. When Obi-Wan and fellow Jedi Quinlan Vos are on the hunt for Ziro in "Hunt for Ziro," they enlist his mother for help. Wow. To think we thought Jabba was obese. And to think we thought Ziro was sexually ambiguous! Ziro's mom is indicative of The Clone Wars' sometimes surreal proclivity for comical exaggeration. If Ziro was based on Truman Capote, Ziro's mom must surely have been inspired by Divine. Brace yourself for this one. You could argue this is The Clone Wars' all-time worst moment. I'd argue it's one of the best.
NEXT: Just like Luke Skywalker's story ended (or so we thought) the moment he became a Jedi, The Clone Wars will go out on top.
12. The Clone Wars' Animation Kept Getting Better and Better
Every season saw a new visual advance. Mind you, Industrial Light &amp; Magic was already a pioneer in the rendering of CGI fire effects. But foliage, water, and hair had always been more of a challenge. And with each year it met those challenges one-by-one. The Season 3 finale's Most Dangerous Game setup of Trandoshan hunters tracking Ahsoka and fellow Padawans through a dense jungle showed how the Lucasarts Animation team had mastered creating a fully organic environment, where before they relied on arid landscapes of sand and rock. Season 4 tackled water with the season-opening arc's three episodes set entirely beneath the waves of ocean planet Mon Calamari. And by Season 5, the characters' hair, previously immobile, had started to move and sway with the wind and their own exertion. Not to mention that their choreography of elaborate fight scenes had never gotten more visceral than by the end of its run. Check out the incredible final showdown between Maul and Pre Vizsla from Season 5's "Shades of Reason."
13. The Clone Wars Could Be Edgy
Oh yeah, Vizsla suffered the fate of Ned Stark there. The Clone Wars could be violent and it more than once got in trouble with timid Cartoon Network censors. Other, more graphic beheadings were cut out of the show altogether. And this scene from the Season 3 premiere, of Asajj Ventress kissing a soldier she's impaled on her lightsaber, was also left on the cutting room floor.
14. The Clone Wars' Makers Knew It Served a Wide Audience
A glimpse at Season 5, alone, shows the narrative diversity of this show. It opened with a four-part arc focused squarely on the war, for an older, more action-oriented crowd. Then it followed that up with "The Young Jedi Knights," episodes that gave the spotlight to younglings first learning the Jedi ropes, showing how they would find their lightsaber crystals, then build their blades. Those eps were clearly for the under-10 crowd, and great for parents to watch with their kids. The same goes for the four-episode adventure about "D-Squad," plucky droids behind enemy lines. Then we got to a three-parter about Darth Maul, and those episodes featured a level of grit--not to mention multiple deaths--to satisfy a Game of Thrones fan. And finally the "Jedi On the Run" arc that saw Ahsoka leave the Jedi Order would appeal to, well, everybody. But especially older fans of the original trilogy searching for those movies' unique mythological resonance.
15. The Clone Wars Corrected the Mistakes of the Prequels
Mind you, I stand by my initial remarks that this is not a time to praise Clone Wars at the expense of the prequels. Actually, I consider myself an ardent prequel defender. Those movies are certainly different from the originals, but in some ways they go deeper, even deconstructing the very Manichaean, Dark Side/Light Side bipolar split of the originals, in showing that the very qualities that make a hero can also make a villain. That's pretty heady stuff. But I do think the Clone Wars series picked up a couple threads that maybe weren't explored as effectively as they could have been in Episodes I, II, and III. Namely, George Lucas himself realized the missed storytelling potential of killing off Darth Maul at the end of The Phantom Menace when he decided to resurrect him on the TV show. Or, rather, that we'd discover he'd never been killed but had survived being cut in half because of the power of the Dark Side...which, as we know, leads to abilities some consider to be unnatural. Suddenly, Darth Maul was back and his motivations were as prickly as his horns--did he want to return to Darth Sidious' side? Did he actually resent Sidious for abandoning him? Just what does he want? Like Hamlet, he may not even know. But that wasn't going to stop him from unleashing a bloodbath in the meantime.
The other area where I'd say The Clone Wars picked up a neglected strand from the prequels was in its development of the relationship between Obi-Wan and Satine. It was funny and fresh, bristling with a hormonal spark and repressed longing. At times, like in the scene below, when Obi-Wan subtly mocks Satine for being a pacifist, there was even a screwball wit to their dynamic. It's probably what we would have liked to have seen from Anakin and Padmé in the movies. But obviously, that could never have been, since Anakin and Padmé's relationship, though consummated, is marked by tragedy, betrayal, and abuse. Instead, Obi-Wan and Satine captured a will-they/won't-they free-spiritedness we hadn't seen in a Star Wars couple since Han and Leia.
There are probably a dozen more reasons I could list for why The Clone Wars was such a valuable part of Star Wars storytelling. Whatever animation projects Disney and Lucasfilm are planning for the future can learn a lot from this show. Hell, Episode VII could learn a lot from The Clone Wars. I've been writing about it in-depth for almost five years, and it still seems too soon to say goodbye.
This will be a show long remembered.
Follow Christian Blauvelt on Twitter @Ctblauvelt
[Photo Credit: Lucasfilm]
You Might Also Like:8 Male Stars With Tramp StampsStars Who Have Lost Roles For Being Too Hot (Celebuzz)

The Mindy Project cast ostensibly gathered onstage for a PaleyFest panel at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills on Friday night to talk about the first season of their delightful Fox comedy. But in addition to talk of casting, writing, and running the show, a good chunk of time was simply dedicated to making fun of Chris Messina, complimenting Chris Messina, hitting on Chris Messina and impersonating Chris Messina. In short, it was hilarious.
Messina was a man of few words, mostly ceding stage time to his chattier castmates (so they could tell stories about him and perfect their New York-y impressions of him). Since that doesn't really translate to print, you can take our word that everyone on the cast has a Messina impression — all with varying degrees of accuracy.
Aside from poking fun at arguably the most lovable cast member, Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, Ed Weeks and the rest of the main cast did manage to share some juicy tidbits of information. Here's what else we learned from the panel:
On leaving The Office:It was "so hard" to exit the show Kaling had worked hard on, but her own show was too good an opportunity to pass up, Kaling says. But leaving such a tight-knit group of people has its perks: "I knew all of them so well, which is why they come on the show," she says. Expect to see more Dunder Mifflin-ites pop up throughout the show's run, along with the ones we've seen already. B.J. Novak will be back for at least one more episode in Season 1, Kaling confirmed.
On the magic of Mark Duplass:Duplass will be back for at least two more episodes. In addition to the next new episode (which was screened before the panel), Duplass just shot an episode in which he gets intimate with Messina. It's an indie-movie-lover's dream: Messina in a Speedo and Duplass in a singlet wrestling on the beach together. "They're submitting it to Sundance," Barinholtz joked. Speaking of Mindy's exes, Tommy Dewey will return for more episodes too.
On Weeks' British charm:The role of Jeremy Reed was originally envisioned as a "Bradley Cooper type," Weeks says. But after practicing the audition pages in his American accent, his roommate encouraged him to go with his native accent instead. Clearly it worked out, though Kaling jokes she was so mesmerized by Weeks' looks that she invited him to her house for a late night casting couch session and that's how he got the role.
On Nurse Beverly:Now that Beth Grant has re-joined the cast full time, we'll learn more about the curmudgeonly character. She's had many different boyfriends of varying ethnic backgrounds, Grant says. At one point, she was engaged to the recently convicted Drew Peterson, Kaling and Barinholtz joke.
On Danny and Mindy's chemistry: The writers' room is very divided between wanting Mindy and Danny to get together and wanting to watch their friendship blossom some more, Barinholtz says. Obviously no one would hint at which way it goes, but they did note that the Season 2 pickup didn't change how they're writing the rest of the season.
As for her non-Mindy-related projects, Kaling confirmed that she'd just read the script for the finale of The Office, which she's shooting in a few days, and that she plans to spend her summer hiatus writing another book.
Follow Jean on Twitter @hijean
[PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Parry/AP Photo]
From Our Partners:Kim Kardashian's Maternity Style: So Wrong? (Vh1)60 Celebrity Bikini Bodies: Guess Who! (Celebuzz)